Dodgers snatch first place with Giants shutout

AT&T PARK — You would think Clayton Kershaw has a Gotham Club membership with how often he owns the Giants.

Kershaw (W, 12-2, 1.76 ERA) went the distance for a major-league leading fourth time this year en route to a 5-0 Dodgers win over the Giants Saturday night.

The Dodgers starter hurled 113 pitches, struck out seven and allowed two hits and a walk for his second complete game shutout of the season.

Manager Bruce Bochy talked about the difficulty going against a pitcher like Kershaw after the game:

“When you’re going against one of the best, you gotta find a way to scratch and claw for runs and hope that your pitcher is on top of his game, which I thought Vogey was.”

Ryan Vogelsong (L, 5-8, 3.94 ERA) finished after six innings, allowing eight hits, four runs, two earned and zero run support for the fifth time in six starts.

Depsite the almost comical lack of offense he receives, Vogelsong blamed himself for the loss:

“It’s on me. I gotta make better pitches. That’s all there is to it. Like I said, as a pitcher, you create your own luck.”

The Giants were 15-35 going into Saturday’s game when they don’t score first. The Dodgers made it 15-36 by the fourth inning.

Hunter Pence made two great plays in right field battling the sun earlier in the game, but it got the better of him in the fourth with a ball off the bat of Adrian Gonzalez.

With the game starting at 6:05 p.m. as opposed to the usual 7:15 p.m., Pence noted the glare was a little trickier than usual:

“The sun hasn’t gone beneath the stadium yet so it’s just right there.”

Gonzalez hit a two-out liner to right and all Pence could do was put both arms in the air and ask himself where the ball went. Pence finally located it — in Triples Alley — and Gonzalez cruised into second with a double.

Hanley Ramirez hit a soft fly ball that dropped in front of Michael Morse to plate Gonzalez the next at-bat and make it 1-0.

Juan Uribe drove in Carl Crawford to make it 2-0 after three consecutive singles to lead off the fifth.

Vogelsong and the Giants had a rough sixth after a Dan Uggla throwing error made it 3-0.

Uggla snared a Crawford grounder to his left and had plenty of time to cut down Yasiel Puig at home. Uggla short-hopped it to Buster Posey, who couldn’t handle it, and Puig was safe.

Uribe drove in his second run of the game in the inning on a double to center field that scored Crawford to make it 4-0.

Gonzalez made it 5-0 in the seventh with an RBI single that scored Dee Gordon. He finished the game 3-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored.

The Dodgers now hold a half-game lead over the Giants in the NL West.

The Giants will try to recapture the division Sunday when newly-acquired Jake Peavy (1-9, 4.72 ERA) makes his first start in a San Francisco uniform.

Peavy was traded prior to Saturday’s game to the Giants for minor league pitchers Edwin Escobar and Heath Hembree.

He’ll reunite with Bochy when they spent 4-1/2 seasons together with the San Diego Padres.

Peavy talked about his excitement revisiting his San Diego connections after Saturday’s game:

“Boch, [Tim Flannery], these guys raised me in the game. I was 20 years old and green as any grapes that you’ve ever seen on the vine I would imagine coming from Semmes, Alabama.”

He also talked about entering tomorrow’s nationally televised game and trying to stop the bleeding:

“I’m excited to get here and pitch. That’s what I know. I’m excited to get out there tomorrow night. Not a whole lot of time to think about things. We’ll get here early tomorrow to do some cramming because, actually, the preparation takes place over a four-day process… We’ve got some homework to do.”

Peavy will face Dodgers lefty Hyun-jin Ryu (11-5, 3.39 ERA).

Game time is 5:07 p.m to accommodate the national ESPN broadcast.

Notes

The Giants have now dropped 18 of their last 24 at AT&T Park. … The last time the Giants had an extra-base hit was Hunter Pence’s three-run double in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies. … The Dodgers clinched their first series victory against the Giants this season and their first since July 5-7, 2013. They had lost the previous five against San Francisco.

Follow @SFBay and @Pacific_Theme on Twitter and at SFBay.ca for full coverage of the San Francisco Giants.